A Day At the Movies

A couple friends and I went to see a movie tonight.  We found inexpensive seats at a somewhat rundown, family owned and operated, small-town theater. My friends were quite astounded that this movie theater had only two rooms to show movies. I was astounded that a small town theater had two rooms. The theater back home, I told them, had one room, a balcony they couldn’t use for safety reasons, and kept popular movies for two weeks, getting them in after every other theater has already had them. When I first saw a theater that had five different movies playing at once I couldn’t figure out how they could play so many.  They were stunned at the $3.25 seat tickets. I’d been stunned at every other theater’s $10 tickets. The theater played oldies music while they were waiting to start the movie, and the seats were soft, leaned back – and it felt at first as though one was about to sink to the ground. After sitting down, we looked around and realized that besides one child, we were the only ones below 40 in the room. As I pointed out, that’s because most people our age went to see this movie while it was still in the big theaters. The movie played – partway with black lines on it, but, hey – that adds to the character, doesn’t it? The theater was cold – but if there had been more than a dozen people it might have been warmer. And a few of the older couples stayed through the credits. 🙂 You know – I think I like small town theaters better than the new, shiny, multi-movie theaters. They have so much more character, warmth (metaphorically), and personal-ness. People know each other and call out hellos across the rows of chairs. They sit and enjoy the ambiance of the movie, taking in both plot and those who made the plot happen. They meander out as though they are not running a race for the finish line.  Sometimes, it’s just nice to see people slow down and enjoy life for what it is.